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Cannupa Hanska Luger’s exhibition American Traditional is on view at Garth Greenan Gallery in New York. Hyperallergic’s Hrag Vartanian describes its sculptures as confronting the slaughter of buffalo during westward expansion, using bison forms, archival references and materials including wood, ironstone clay and sumi ink. The supplied report does not give the exhibition’s dates or further details about its works.
Cannupa Hanska Luger’s American Traditional, an exhibition at Garth Greenan Gallery in New York, brings together sculptural bison forms and archival references to address the slaughter of buffalo during westward expansion. In a review for Hyperallergic, editor-at-large Hrag Vartanian calls the show the artist’s strongest work yet, arguing that its visually compelling forms carry the history of that destruction.
Vartanian describes an abstracted bison made from ironstone clay and sumi ink, placed on a burned and blackened 19th-century American dining table. Another work features a stack of bison skulls on a surface whose legs are made from vintage axes. The source does not provide the artworks’ titles, dimensions or individual dates.
The review says the exhibition marks a shift from the participatory, ceramics-heavy projects for which Luger is best known. Instead, Vartanian characterizes the new work as a synthesis of wood, ink and archival material. The article links the imagery to the mass killing of buffalo by European settlers amid westward expansion, while framing that history as embedded in the works rather than as separate background information.
Vartanian also describes a prior encounter with an 1892 photograph showing two men beside a hill of buffalo skulls. At the Baltimore Museum of Art, the image was covered by a small curtain made by Yurok artist Stormi Turner as part of the exhibition Preoccupied: Indigenizing the Museum. The review connects that intervention’s deliberate withholding of the image with the care owed to the animal and to Native communities with longstanding relationships to buffalo.
Buffalo History in Sculptural Form
The exhibition places a history of mass buffalo slaughter within a contemporary art setting, using recognizable animal forms and objects associated with domestic and industrial life. The burned dining table and axe-legged surface, as described in the review, bring the history into contact with everyday materials rather than presenting it only as a distant event.
That framing matters because the buffalo’s destruction was also part of the violent expansion of European settlement, and the source notes that many Native American communities had lived in symbiotic relationship with the animal for millennia. Vartanian’s account presents the artworks as a way to confront that rupture and its continuing presence in how American history is represented. These are the reviewer’s interpretations; the source does not include a statement from Luger explaining the works.
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From Museum Archive to Gallery
Vartanian’s review begins with his memory of the 1892 buffalo-skull photograph at the Baltimore Museum of Art. He recalls that Turner’s curtain partially concealed the image, requiring visitors to choose whether to reveal it. The review compares this approach to museum practices that place human remains behind covers or doors, suggesting that the image calls for a response attentive to the violence it records.
That earlier encounter shapes Vartanian’s reading of American Traditional. The article presents Luger’s show as a move toward a more declarative combination of sculpture and archive, while tying its subject to the history of westward expansion. The supplied material identifies the venue as Garth Greenan Gallery in Soho but does not provide a show schedule, an exhibition checklist or additional historical documentation.
““strongest work yet””
— Hrag Vartanian, Hyperallergic editor-at-large and reviewer
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Exhibition Details Not Provided
The source does not state when American Traditional opened or closes, how many works are included, or whether the gallery has published further details about the exhibition. It also does not provide direct comments from Luger, so the account of the artist’s intentions is limited to Vartanian’s review and interpretation.
The article identifies the buffalo’s slaughter by European settlers as the history haunting the work, but the supplied material does not give estimates, dates or other historical data about the killings. Those specifics cannot be established from this source alone.
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Gallery Information and Further Coverage
Readers seeking practical details, including the exhibition’s dates and visiting information, will need to consult Garth Greenan Gallery or the full Hyperallergic review. The supplied report does not announce a related event, catalogue or future milestone.
Further coverage could clarify the exhibition’s schedule, the full range of works and whether Luger has commented on the reviewer’s interpretation. Until then, the confirmed development is the presentation of American Traditional at the gallery and Hyperallergic’s publication of Vartanian’s response to it.
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Key Questions
What is American Traditional?
It is an exhibition by Cannupa Hanska Luger at Garth Greenan Gallery in New York, described in a Hyperallergic review as combining sculpture, wood, ink and archival references.
What history does the exhibition address?
Hyperallergic reviewer Hrag Vartanian reads the works as addressing the slaughter of buffalo by European settlers during westward expansion and its connection to Native communities.
What materials appear in the works described?
The review describes an abstracted bison made from ironstone clay and sumi ink, along with a burned 19th-century dining table, vintage axes and a stack of skull forms.
When can visitors see the exhibition?
The supplied source does not give opening or closing dates. Check with Garth Greenan Gallery for current visitor information.
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